Pesticide Usage in Scotland: Local Authority Integrated Weed Control Survey - 2019

Results

Local Authority data provision and survey coverage

All 32 local authorities (LAs) in Scotland were contacted and asked to supply data relating to their weed control measures during 2019. Twenty-eight LAs responded to this voluntary survey in total (Figure 1). These LAs collectively represented 89 per cent of the Scottish land area and 93 per cent of the Scottish population (Table 9, Appendix 2). The remaining four LAs did not respond to the survey.

This was a complex data request, asking for weed control information in relation to a variety of use types and settings which had been conducted by a range of operatives and contractors. Of the 28 responses, one LA only supplied qualitative data on control measures and not herbicide use, therefore the herbicide data presented represents 27 LAs (covering 89 per cent of Scotland's land area and 92 per cent of the population).

Of those 27 LAs providing herbicide use data, two LAs could only provide partial data (weed management in greenspaces e.g. parks, gardens etc but could not include use on areas such as highways or footpaths). A further two LAs provided quantities of pesticides purchased, rather than applied, due to time constraint and resourcing issues, but confirmed that usage closely matched the quantity purchased. In addition, whilst the majority of LAs provided data for the 2019 calendar year, a proportion (ca 19 per cent) kept records on a financial year basis and provided data for April 2019 to March 2020.

It should be noted that the information presented in this report only represents the data collected and does not attempt to estimate total Scottish herbicide use by LAs (refer to methodology section, Appendix 5). However, despite this incomplete coverage and some minor inconsistencies in data availability, the results of this survey provide a good representation of current weed control practices employed by Scottish LAs.